2008 Grantees

Boise Community Radio – $2,500

Mission: Boise Community Radio, Inc. was established in 2002 to create souhtwestern Idaho’s only locally programmed, non-commercial community-based radio station. Broadcasting includes musical, cultural, entertainment and public affairs programming to the Treasure Valley.Funding: Continue an initiative to provide programming and promote its internet broadcast service, RadioBoise. Expand programming and promote democratic, accessible progressive Internet based broadcasting services by increasing community participation.

Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS) – $2,500

Mission: To use organic gardening to engage students, teachers and community members in issues of ecology, local food economies, sustainability, nutrition, health and environmental literacy. The garden creates an authentic learning environment to empower students through inquiry and problem solving, which stimulates critical thinking and nurtures community action.Funding: Conduct public school workshops on “Small-scale Gardening Strategies for Schools and Urban Backyards” and launch two six-week school sessions (spring & fall 2008) “Toward a Livable Future: Food, Energy, and Water.” In Fall 2008, expand workshops to more than four area classrooms.

Centro de Comunidad y Justicia – $2,500

Mission: To improve the educational, economic, and social status of Latinos in Idaho.Funding: To assist high school and college age Latino youth in order to increase opportunities for Latino youth to learn leadership skills needed to increase their participation in community based, progressive organizations, state commissions or boards, and in elected office within local, state, and federal government.

Citizens for Smart Growth – $2,500

Mission: This group exists to empower citizens to shape vibrant communities in balance with nature.Funding: Land development and population growth are threatening Blaine County, Idaho’s, quality of life. Citizens for Smart Growth’s outreach program will educate Blaine County residents about the Smart Growth Principles and engage them in the public process, empowering them to make decisions that support the best development patterns for the entire region.

Idaho Energy Education Project – $2,500

Mission: To facilitate a discussion of energy, resources and climate change impacts in parts of Idaho not served by the larger environmental and conservation groups. Our work targets schools to bring students into the discussion and give them tools to make responsible energy and resource decisions.Funding: Cover the cost of providing seminars and presentations on important energy and climate change issues that make real and personal the decisions on energy consumption and production and maximize the ability of IEEP to influence the energy discussion here in Idaho.

Idaho Hispanic Caucus R & E – $2,500

Mission: To promote the social welfare of the Latino community through research and education of social justice issues that affects the social well being of Idaho’s Latinos.Funding: To maintain our capacity to address issues (such as an Office of Multicultural Health, immigration, education, and minimum wage) and representation on the State Board of Education.

Idaho Rural Council: General Support – $2,500

Mission: To preserve the economic well-being of Idaho’s family farms and rural communities; to build a more sustainable society which will guarantee positive economic and social choices for present and future generations, and to achieve good stewardship of humanity, land, air, and water.Funding: To fund community organizing in rural areas where industrial dairy CAFO’s are existing, proposed or expanding. IRC’s grassroots members work to stop new CAFO construction, stop existing CAFO’s from expanding, and hold existing CAFO owners accountable for the damage they do to the quality of life, air, and water where they operate.

Idaho Smart Growth – $2,500

Mission: As more people call Idaho home, Idaho Smart Growth brings people together to make sure we keep our communities vibrant and our lands health.Funding: To use grassroots organizing to build power from the ground up and broaden the support for transit in the Boise metro area and throughout Idaho; involve more of the public in discussion of transit options; and empower activists to become leaders to ensure expanded transit options for residents.

Idaho Women’s Network – $2,500

Mission: To unite the voices and interests of Idaho women, families, and communities and use community organizing, advocacy, and education to strengthen democracy and promote human rights.Funding: To ensure women’s access to emergency contraception in Idaho and to enact Employment Non-Discrimination acts in Pocatello and Moscow to ensure employment protections for the GLBTQ populations in those communities.

Interfaith Alliance of Idaho – $2,500

Mission: To offer a mainstream, faith-based agenda committed to the pursuit of individual dignity and the importance of community and promote the positive and healing role of religion in public life through encouraging civic participation, facilitating inclusive community activism, and challenging religious political extremism.Funding: To support Democracy Circles: Building Beloved Community, our grassroots organizing program to increase membership in The Interfaith Alliance of Idaho and build a broader base of informed, civically active people of faith and good will state-wide in Idaho.

Mujeres Unidas de Idaho – $2,500

Mission: To bring Latinas in Idaho together to examine and take action on issues affecting their communities; to develop new Latina leaders in our communities so that each new leader takes an active role in society; and to value the power of every woman because we believe that all women should be valued equally.Funding: Send 6 more Latinas to CSTI training, grow MUI chapters in Moscow, Pocatello, Caldwell, and St. Mary’s Boise, provide more workshops and attract well known speakers to the MUI Annual Conference in June, 2008, join more social justice & environmental organizations, and implement the Mujer del Ano celebration dinner.